The Beach Boys started the fire: they fused the four-part harmonies of vocals
groups like the Four Freshmen with Chuck Berry's rock and roll rhythm and a
new genre was born. The Beatles, the Byrds and countless others copied the
idea and the history of popular music would never be the same again.
Ballads such as Don't Worry Baby (1964) were both a synthesis of Phil Spector's "wall of sound", Chuck Berry's teenage vignettes, doo-wop's stately four-part harmonies, and the cornerstone of a new form of pop music.
That form was born with
I Get Around (1964), the greatest of their car songs,
Help Me Rhonda (1965), the most acrobatic of their multi-part vocal inventions,
Barbara Ann (1965), the most anarchic of their geometric constructions,
and Good Vibrations (1966), the first pop hit to employ electronic sounds.
Brian Wilson, the genius behind the Beach Boys' sound
became the quintessential eccentric of melody, particularly on
Pet Sounds (1966) and
the "lost album" Smile (recorded in 1967, but released only in 2004).
Brian Wilson created a unique role for himself when he quit playing:
basically, he was a composer who had a band to perform his repertory.
The Beach Boys became immaterial as Brian Wilson became one of the most
creative composers of songs of all times.
Unfortunately, his wildly eccentric persona eventually self-destroyed.
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The "lost album", Smile, recorded in 1966-67 with producer
Van Dyke Parks, that Wilson defined as "a teenage symphony to God",
was originally intended to be acapella, then became a Brian Wilson obsession
with studio experimentation, then eventually disappeared in a black hole of
personal and legal problems.
About 30 minutes of those sessions will eventually appear on
Good Vibrations (Capitol, 1993), a five-disc box-set, and
rerecorded versions of Wind Chimes, Wonderful and
Vegetables feature on Smiley Smile (september 1967),
an album highlighted by
much vocal experimentation but an utter commercial failure.
Material originally recorded for
Surf's Up (a nostalgic lullaby),
Child Is The Father To The Man, Elements
and others will be recycled for subsequent albums.
Heroes And Villains was released as a single.
The album was cancelled in May 1967.
Legend has it that 24-years old Brian Wilson was psychologically destroyed by the loss
of this album and almost took his life during a nervous breakdown in 1982.

When Brian Wilson (helped by co-songwriter Van Dyke Parks) finally released his
version of Smile (Nonesuch, 2004), 37 years after the fact, at the age
of 62, having lost both his brothers Dennis and Carl, it sounded completely different.
Instead of the manic studio work of the originals, Wilson presented a rock-band
effort. Ironically, the 2004 version sounded "older" than the 1967 version:
the 2004 version (which does not use any of the 1967 recordings)
was more traditional, the 1967 was more revolutionary.
The biggest surprise was perhaps the sequencing, that highlighted how, for
example, songs were meant not to be taken individually but to constitute suites,
a feat that was accomplished particularly in
Wonderful/ Song for Children/ Child Is the Father of the Man/ Surf's Up.

Perhaps as a consequence of that turbulent season,
Wild Honey (dicembre 1967) marked a return to simplicity
(Darlin) and probably a rebellion against Brian Wilson's eccentricity
by the rest of the band.

Heroes And Villains (luglio 1967) is a highly sophisticated game of
voices and harpsichord with which the band temporarily embraced the
psychedelic religion.

20/20 (febbraio 1969) includes Cabinessence, another lost Smile classic.
The material runs the gamut from the relatively normal single Do It Again
to a collaboration with mass murderer Charles Manson
(Never Learn Not To Love).

Sunflower (Brother, 1970) was the last experimental album by the
band, hailed as their Sgt Pepper.
It includes This Whole World.
The best track, Cool Cool Water, was a remake of a Smile track,
Elements.

Surf's Up (Brother, 1971) contains Surf's Up, which is a rerecording of
a Smile track plus a piece of another Smile track,.
Child Is The Father To The Man.
As it is, Surf's Up remains one of the band's masterpieces
(but for the first time it was Carl, not Brian, who produced).
Thanks to this track and other gems (Til I Die, Long Promised Road,
Feel Flows),
Surf's Up is probably their best album since Pet Sounds.

Carl And The Passions (Brother, 1972)
has Marcella, All This Is That and You Need A Mess.

Holland (Brother, 1972), that takes the title from the place where it
was recorded, has Sail On Sailor, Steamboat,
California Saga.

15 Big Ones (Brother, 1976), trumpeted as Brian Wilson's return,
was a collection of rock and roll and rhythm and blues covers.

Brian did write the entire Love You (Brother, 1977) and it was one of
his quirkiest and most electronic works, possibly influenced by the emergence
of disco-music
(Let Us Go On This Way, Mona, Johnny Carson).

Pacific Ocean Blue (Brother, 1977) was Dennis Wilson's solo album
and the first solo by any of the Beach Boys.
The 2008 reissue adds the unfinished and unreleased follow-up, Bambu.
Both were almost as obnoxious as Paul McCartney's solo albums.

20 Golden Greats (Capitol, 1977) was a mercyful anthology of the
historical hits.

More albums followed till
Keepin' The Summer Alive (Brother, 1980) and Beach Boys (Brother, 1985), all of them absolutely terrible.

Endless Harmony (Capitol, 1998) is a collection of rarities that
finally presented two of Wilson's most legendary compositions,
Soulful Old Man Sunshine (1969) and Loop De Loop.

Ironically, Dennis Wilson (the only member of the Beach Boys who was truly a
surfer) drowned in 1983. He had been a notorious drunkard all his life.

For years
Brian Wilson was rumoured to have gone mad and to have ruined his voice.
But rehabilitation was on its way, thanks to a psychiatrist and to strong
will.

In 1988 the Beach Boys reunited and returned to the top of the charts with
Kokomo, from a movie soundtrack.

Brian Wilson (Sire, 1988) was the solo debut by the Beach Boys genius,
but as big a disappointment as any Paul McCartney solo
(Love And Mercy,
Solar System, Melt Away).

A weary songwriter sings behind the curtain on
Sweet Insanity (Vigoton, 1993), that contains nice melodies like
Water Builds Up, Don't Let Her Know She's An Angel and
Rainbow Eyes, but is hardly a masterpiece.

An old feud with Mike Love (and possibly a personal nemesis)
was definitely left behind in 1994, when Brian Wilson
paid him $5 million for royalties on songs they co-composed together.

I Just Wasn't Made For These Times (MCA, 1995), the soundtrack to a
documentary on Brian Wilson, revisits some of his career's off-kilter tracks.
solista di Brian Wilson.

Orange Crate Art (Warner Bros, 1995) is a collaboration with Van Dyke
Parks, the ideal healing of the scar left by their previous collaboration,
Smile. But it is a Parks album, with Wilson singing over his scores.

Landylocked (Geritol, 1996)

The five-disc box-set
Good Vibrations (Capitol, 1993) is the best anthology.

Imagination (Giant, 1998) is a gracious but not particularly innovative
collection of melodies that could have been made by any Wilson clone.

Pet Sounds Sessions (Capitol, 1997) is a four-disc box set
that follows the genesis of Wilson's masterpiece
(it includes a complete acapella version of the album).

Carl Wilson died of lung cancer in february of 1998.

Brian Wilson's
Getting In Over My Head (Rhino, 2004) is not only mediocre but
also self-derivative, as most songs echo past Wilson songs.
That Lucky Old Sun (2008) was a concept about a day and a night in
Los Angeles.

Brian Wilson paid tribute to George Gershwin on
Reimagines Gershwin (2010) and
to Walt Disney soundtracks on
In the Key of Disney (2011).

The Beach Boys (including founding members Brian Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine) reunited in 2012 to celebrate their 50th anniversary, and released the ridiculous reunion album That's Why God Made the Radio (2012).

Brian Wilson's No Pier Pressure (Capitol, 2015) was probably the worst
album of his career, a collection of bland orchestral songs.